In law, there is the concept of objective foreseeability, which basically means that one has to reckon with a certain course of things based on life experience alone. And even if football draws its attractiveness to a large extent from the fact that it resists predictability (“People go there because they don’t know how it will turn out,” said Sepp Herberger), it sometimes happens that hunches are confirmed. For example on Saturday in the stadium at the Alte Försterei in Berlin-Köpenick.
Okay, the fact that 1. FC Union played VfB Stuttgart there was in line with the schedule announced at the start of the season. And haven’t Union home games long been suspected of being spoilers, as you might say in modern German? Union haven’t lost at home for almost 14 months; and as third in the table you were the favorite against the last team from Stuttgart anyway. The only surprise was that the Köpenickers won 3-0 against Stuttgart: It was the biggest home win of the current season, which intensified the Unioners’ flirtation with the Champions League. Regardless of the outcome of the next game at Borussia Dortmund, Union will remain in a Champions League spot after the Easter weekend.
Conversely, it was the case that VfB Stuttgart could not be expected to win away from home. Since December 11, 2021, the Swabians have not had a threesome in every Bundesliga away game. The trend of the past few weeks also spoke against VfB. The 0: 3, which was created by goals from Sheraldo Becker, Kevin Behrens and ex-Unioner Genki Haraguchi (own goal), increased the number of defeats under coach Bruno Labbadia to seven, in eleven games he has only celebrated one win. The 2,500 Stuttgart fans who traveled with them reacted angrily – and summoned the initially hesitant VfB professionals to the guest block to give them their opinion. “I would say the original sound was in plain German that we should work our ass off,” reported goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow. Whereby the truth was that Stuttgart had dominated in the first half. “We’re bottom of the table, so there’s a lot of criticism. Nobody sees what’s positive, only what’s negative,” said VfB coach Bruno Labbadia.
“We won’t find the sole culprit,” says sports director Fabian Wohlgemuth
That in turn is one of the “mechanisms of business” that were evoked as soon as Labbadia and his colleague Urs Fischer entered the press conference room. Because Labbadia got namely just from the Picture-Zeitung asked whether he assumed that he would “still be the coach of VfB when it left the port” on Sunday. Precisely because these Picture had long assumed at this point that Labbadia would no longer be a VfB coach. The newspaper had already spread online that Labbadia was “gone” and Markus Gisdol should come as his successor before the DFB Cup game on Wednesday in Nuremberg.
A clear demand from the Stuttgart supporters: “Like up on your responsibilities – question everything” is written on the poster that some of them are holding up in Berlin.
(Photo: Matthias Koch/Imago)
VfB sports director Fabian Wohlgemuth seemed embarrassed when asked about it. However, he did not allow himself to be carried away to a denial. “We won’t sit idle and watch the world go down. We’re trying to find solutions,” he said, adding that it made no sense “to have a personal debate after the game out of frustration and emotion.” Especially since the club management at VfB has shown joy in experimenting so far this season.
“If you evaluate the overall situation: We had three coaches, all with very different profiles. That means we won’t find the sole culprit,” said Wohlgemuth, referring to the course of the season so far: Before Labbadia, who was installed in December, they had each other already tried Pellegrino Matarazzo and Michael Wimmer on the Stuttgarters. Matarazzo had gone nine games without a win at the start of the season, while Wimmer had at least three wins from six games before taking over as head coach at Austria Wien in January. He didn’t want to be an assistant under Labbadia, who has only picked six points from 11 games since taking charge. On Sunday, however, Labbadia led the morning training session.
Accordingly, the VfB house is in blazing flames. This was evident above all from the reactions of the VfB fans, who brought two large banners with them. The first could be seen before kick-off, when Stuttgart warmed up: “End the nightmare! Wake up!” As I said, it worked quite well for 45 minutes, three great chances remained unused, one goal was annulled because of a handball. Only: “If you’re in front, luck is on your side. It’s the other way around for us. It’s disappointing,” said Labbadia. And, it should be added: predictable. At least for the supporters of VfB. Because when their club was 3-0 down in the 75th minute, they unfurled a banner that must have been prepared well in advance. “Like up on your responsibilities! Question everything!” It read, and it exposed the Stuttgart supporters as hostages to defeatism.